Pakistan’s top crime investigator now claims Kenya police have declined to produce a police officer, alleged to have been shot from the car in which Pakistani journalist Arshad Shariff was, reportedly killed on October 23 outside Nairobi.
In US and Pakistan media reports over the weekend Pakistani officials escalated their claims that Shariff was murdered by Kenya police in a targeted killing and have since refused to cooperate with a team of investigators sent from Islamabad to unravel the truth.
Muhsin Butt, the Director General of Pakistan’s Federal Investigations Agency was quoted on Saturday accusing the Kenyans of advancing absurd theories and illogical explanations in the cause of the two nations’ join investigation.
He repeated claims made last week by Pakistan’s Interior minister Rana Sanaullah, that a squad of Kenya police murdered the journalist.
“We believe that the Kenyan police are involved in targeting Arshad Sharif,” Butt told VOA, noting there were several things which were quite strange in the entire episode.
“Not giving access to the shooter whose hand was injured two weeks ago. This is also very strange. This officer’s statement would have been very important”.
Sharif was a vocal critic of the Pakistan regime and his purported arrival in Kenya from Dubai on August 20 this year on purported invitation by two businessmen Waqar Ahmed and Khurram Ahmed has not been fully explained amid reports of a multinational cover up of the killing.
Initially the Pakistan regime had suggested that the opposition Pakistan lured the deceased from his mother land. Islamabad has also suggested that the Pakistani Taliban had threatened the journalist and also suggested that Waqar and Khurram would be co-conspirators in a Kenyan police led murder and cover up.
On October 23 Kenya police claimed Shariff was shot and killed at a road block outside Nairobi in a tragic case of mistaken identity after the car he was in defied police instructions to stop.
Later Kenya police claimed a shot was fired from the car and injured a General Service Unit officer in the hand. Two investigators-Omar Shahid Hamid and Atheer Wahid- were deployed from Pakistan to join Kenyan investigators.
Meanwhile Kenyan and Pakistan pathologists have differed over the findings of autopsies conducted on the corpse in Nairobi and Pakistan. Pakistan pathologists claim their Kenyan counterparts left a bullet in the deceased’s chest cavity without explanation.
And Pakistan investigators allege pictures leaked from their autopsy display torture marks, an observation not made by Kenyan investigators and pathologists.
On Saturday Geo TV reported that Kenya police declined to allow the Pakistani investigators to interrogate the GSU officer said to have been injured in the alleged October 23 shooting.
But is quoted saying:
“Our team wanted to interview all the four shooters to record their statements but they produced only three shooters and told our investigators that the fourth shooter is injurd and unable to be interviewed. The Kenya police told the Pakistani team that the shooter who cannot be produced for questioning is the one who was injured in the firing done from inside Arshad Sharif’s car.”
Butt describes the denial of access as illogical because this statement is crucial to any investigation. The Pakistanis, in part wanted to prove that indeed the injured officer exists.
“….The Kenya police have said he was injured in firing from Arshad Sharif’s car. Our team wanted to see his injuries and evidence.”
Additionally, according to this interview the Pakistani investigators inspected the alleged car fro which the officer was shot but found any evidence.
According to Geo Tv the investigators “…inspected the Toyota Land Cruiser in which Arshad Sharif was travelling but didn’t see any evidence of any firing being done from inside the car towards the ouside.”
Th report alleges that Kenya police did not supply such evidence of the purported shooting either and adds that the three police officers interviewed repeated the theory advanced by their seniors that they opened fire on Arshad’s moving car out of mistake after it failed to stop at a roadblock.
